The House of Prayer

With a great deal of attention on the Lord rising up houses of prayer all around the world, we can over look that they are for something. The House of Prayer is for all the people. Right now many are feeling the pressure to be a part of the prayer movement, and this pressure is good in that it aids the process of true refinement. But not everyone is called to the house of prayer for service. Most people are called to the house of prayer to be served.

The Peoria Prayer Center is a place were people of prayer can serve the body of Christ and the societies of the world through intercession. We are in the place of prayer so that others can be in the place of their callings and not be alone. We want to befriend and cover others. In the past where the people of prayer walked in this ministry of service those people served became demanding. The intercessors became worn out by the constant requirement to pray for this thing and that think while many others lived lives of entertainment and rest. Envy snuck in and people called to intercessors want to be preachers, teachers, leaders and most anything else. It was like a virus of “you can be it all, have it all, don’t need anyone else” had invaded the church.

Weakened by this situation and failing to have deep wells of refreshment to drink from , the people of prayer slipped away from the place of service and continued to pray on their own, in their own way and without the needed connections of responsibility and accountability. The prayer movement became invaded by pride as each one sought to do what was best in their own sight. Presumption and boldness joined with this pride and intercessors were proclaiming to spiritual leaders directions, truths and actions they should be taking but failed to do. A little jealously and a few wounds of rejection started to grip hearts as conflict and competition arose in the body of Christ as to who were the true spiritual people, who were the ones hearing from God, who had the real authority.

All the conditions of this previous cycle have not yet been healed and resolved. God is still sending out His call to build a house of prayer and there are still numerous issues surrounding it. Spirits of elitism, triumpulism and rebellion are still around and open to anyone who is open to having them influence their life. What I am saying, in short, is that opinions and ideas about a house of prayer are a varied and diverse as people you will talk to. These ideas are used to build camps of division, isolation and separation. Knowing that they exist will help us keep on turning to the Lord for their redemption.

I am writing this mainly to the people who serve with me at the Peoria Prayer Center. I want them to know and be at peace with the nature of the calling I think we are to labor under as we build a community wide house of prayer that endures for 100 years. We are still digging out for the foundation. But the time will come when we reach the bedrock of Christ Jesus alone and then we can start to build a lasting foundation on that. This is not a “vision statement” to which I want you to ascribe. Relationships will last far beyond what we can see and we want to build on relationships, not gifts, callings, talents or abilities. Loving God and others is that which will not fail.

Here is a bullet list of issues I encourage you to take to the Lord.
• The call to intimacy with God is not the same call as to the prayer ministry. God’s call to intimacy is for all people and not so much a call as a life of authentic relationship.
• From the place of communion with God the people of prayer are to pray for all people, all nations. We are to intercede for business, media, art, education and numerous other issues. The Kingdom of God is within people and people are taking it into the world.
• No calling of the Lord is better than another. The spirit that says ministry is better than business or that prayer is better than media is not of the Lord. “Apostle” means “sent one”. Sent people, people called of God are going to take the Kingdom to the world.
• True holiness can serve in evil places.(RE: Daniel, Ezekiel, Paul)
• Some callings are for a lifetime and some are for a season. God doesn’t take back a calling, but that is different than a calling lasting forever. (A person could be called to be single, then called to marry, then called to be a mom, then called to remain single again later in life after the death of their mate.)
• While each of us is to be a dwelling (house) of the Lord, having organizations that serve the Lord in equipping and discipleship are also a part of His ways. People are the church, yet we build buildings and have organizations we call churches. To say we don’t need literal houses of prayer because we are all called to be His dwelling place would also be saying we do not need churches because we are all called to be the church.
• Time was made for man, not man for time. You and I have the time we need to live the life God has called us to. While we seek to make the most of every opportunity, we do not need to hurry, be anxious or be opportunist. We have time for love to mature. We have time for character, wisdom and knowledge to grow. We have time for God and time for others.

Mark 11:17 And He began to teach and say to them, "Is it not written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS'? But you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN."

Isaiah 56:7 Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."

The Crafty Trap

There is a crafty trap in life
It’s set for those who care
In that to which you are called
The rap is set right there

It seeks to capture passioned souls
It blocks their loving work
It hides in appearance management
And in busyness lurks

It loves for you to do your call
As long as you do not
To avoid the very things it’s self
By endless management

And in the end ten thousand souls
Fail to do as one
For the very thing set out to do
Is the very thing undone

If you want to do something, it must get done.

Can You hear Me Now

One of life’s greatest pains is the way we do not listen to others. It is like our minds pre-judge the value of what someone is going to say and before they say it, we determine if we are going to listen. I see this all the time in myself when I think someone in the family is going to disagree with me. I answer or react to their response before they respond. The only trouble with responding to the response before it occurs is that there are times when I am wrong. There are times when our knowledge of others and our pre-responses are helpful, like warning someone of running a light while talking on the cell phone. But most of the time it is “sneaky pride”. It is our pride controlling life and conversation to the point to total rule.

It takes patience and kindness to listen to people. Even in hearing what they are actually saying requires us to be kind and wait until we know if “what they said” was “what they meant”. Yet is seems like we are more interested in pointing out the faults of the one speaking, then we are hearing, understanding and developing a healthy relationship. We now have so much communication that we treat life like “facebook”, we just keep going if we don’t understand something. That or we correct it. Fight or flight on the social websites and in our daily lives.

So…… if we want to be heard, what should we do.
1. Talk less. We can say more by talking less. Everyone will benefit.
2. Listen to listen, not listen to respond.
3. Learn to be valuable in a group through smiling, body language, listening, serving and not just adding comments or sharing opinions.’
4. Wait for others to share. Just because you have stuff to say doesn’t mean you should share it. Give the more timid and humble an opportunity.
5. Practice silence. Every now and then practice seasons of silence, you can call it fasting words.

Going Back to Advance

I have found time and time again, that the Lord leads me forward by taking me back. This “back” is usually to a forgotten word or direction; sometimes it is to a habit or tradition that was lost. In my never ending quest to advance, I tend to leave behind a great many things God still desires that I hold onto and practice. Over the last two decades I have read more old books and found that much of what we call “new” has already been done, often in the very same way we are now doing it. Yet we say it is new and sometimes we say we are the first to do it. Ooooops. We forget.
One thing that I feel God wants to re-ignite in me and maybe in our region is the “Lighthouse Movement”. There is a simple beauty in praying and encouraging other people to pray for their neighbors. Yet the simple things are often the hardest to keep faithfully doing. Enduring, persistent, longsuffering and faithful are not as exciting to us as “new, improved, revolutionary, cutting edge and relevant”. Do we now live in a world in which information must be in the last hour to be of value? Is it now that case that, “If it didn’t happen in the last hour or if it was not posted in today’s post”, then it isn’t important anymore? What if we treat God the same way? What if His message to us last year is just old news to us and what we want is a “now word” so that we can move ahead.
Advancing in the Lord? Try this….
1. Seek to live out what you do know as you seek God for what you don’t.
2. Honor your father and mother, not just the good father or mother, but all fathers and mothers. I relate this to spiritual moms and dads too.
3. Spend time reviewing all that the Lord has done for you. Remember your history with God. Give thanks for His goodness over years, not just this week.
4. Go back and see if you are doing what God has previously asked you to do. It could be that you have dropped off the pathway of His direction and are trying to make progress on your own path.

Long have I been loved

If ever you have the opportunity through a vision or revelation or dream to see what Jesus did for humanity, you will have a great tool of enlightenment to war against Satan’s attacks. The evil one delights in telling lies, one of the greatest is that we are not loved, not lovable, not lovely.

In our humility we must embrace the reality that the love of God for us is more than we can know. It is beyond our comprehension. It is like the expanding universe with more galaxies, more stars, more wonders than we can possibly perceive. Yet like space, is it real, tangible, verifiable. Eternal love for man manifested through the son of God suffering so that we would have a historical witness.

Long have I been loved
Sacrifice was given
Take me – let him go
Ransoms price was paid

Less then deserving
More than wrong
Loves action completed
Suffered for my pride

Unseen mysterious sacrifice
Lying thoughts to doubt
Promoting not selected
Only love is SELF

Everyone who follows
Must bear a cross like his
Loves sacrifice demands it
Our own life we give

Long have I been loved
History marked it well
All my failures broken
Emptiness filled